From October general practices in England will be financially penalised if they close during core working hours during the week, the chief executive of NHS England has said.

Simon Stevens told MPs on the House of Commons Public Accounts Committee that changes to the GP contract, which will be introduced in October, will allow NHS England to scrutinise GP opening hours more closely and take action where necessary.

General practice leaders have called on the government and the General Medical Council to correct the “anachronistic anomaly” whereby GP postgraduate training remains unrecognised as a medical specialty in the United Kingdom.

In a joint statement,

GP leaders from the BMA and the Royal College of General Practitioners (RCGP) from across the four UK nations said that this recognition was “long overdue” given the rigorous training and examination that GPs undergo.

NHS England has announced a range of improvements to its GP retainer scheme, including increased funding for GPs and practices. The scheme provides financial incentives and development support to encourage GPs who might otherwise leave the profession to remain in general practice.

NHS England said that, from 1 July 2016, it would increase the money for practices employing a retained GP and the annual payment towards professional expenses for GPs in the scheme.

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The NHS plans to launch a new national occupational health service from next April to support general practitioners experiencing burnout and stress.

A national service specification based on successful local programmes will form part of a wider, major new drive from NHS England to improve the health and wellbeing of NHS staff. The scheme will include serving healthier food, offering health checks in the workplace, and promoting physical activity among staff.

Physician associates could be a solution to overburdened general practices, researchers have said, after they found that outcomes in patients seen by these health professionals were similar to those in patients seen by GPs and that they cost less to practices.

The researchers looked at the medical records of 2086 patients presenting for same day appointments at 12 general practices in England over four weeks in 2011 and 2012 (two weeks in winter and two weeks in summer) who were seen by a physician associate or GP. Physician associates have previously been known as physician assistants.

Researchers have found that symptoms of bowel cancer tended to be identified slightly more quickly when patients consulted an unknown doctor rather than their usual GP.

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The study, published in the British Journal of General Practice, included data for 2000 to 2009 from the General Practice Research Database. The study included around 18 500 patients with breast, bowel, or lung cancer whose relevant cancer symptoms or signs were identified up to 12 months before the eventual diagnosis.

GPs want more time to treat their patients, a survey of the profession has found.

The survey of GPs’ work, carried out by IMC Unlimited on behalf of the BMA, received 15 560 responses from GPs across the United Kingdom. The BMA has described it as one of the largest recent tests of the profession’s opinion.

It found that less than a 10th of GPs (8%) thought that the standard 10 minute consultation in general practice was adequate. Around two thirds (68%) of respondents thought that it would be better to provide longer consultations of greater quality